"We absolutely cannot allow the headquarters of the World Development Committee to be established on the Bail Federal mainland!"

This sentence was spoken by Gafura’s Diplomat in private conversations. He believed that once the headquarters of the World Development Committee was set up on the Federation Mainland, it would become one of the Federation’s branch agencies, rather than a genuinely international body.

Calling themselves member states was less accurate, in his view, than saying they were countries restrained by the Federation Government’s international policy pincers.

And wasn’t that exactly the case?

The advantage of home-ground management would expand the Federation’s power within the World Development Committee. Some member states would naturally gravitate toward the Federation, and in the end whatever the Federation said would go. This did not align with the current interests and demands of the various states in international affairs.

Everyone expressed agreement with this and endorsed Gafura’s Diplomat’s view, and they all agreed that in the talks to come, they would join hands to pressure the Federation on the issue of the site of establishment.

The unexpected part was that the Federation took the initiative to make a concession on this question.

"Our preliminary plan is to establish the headquarters of the World Development Committee in Sedolas. We all know Sedolas has always maintained neutrality; it does not lean toward any side."

"This will provide a very suitable environment for our subsequent management and work!"

Sedolas was only a small country, and the international situation was changing extremely fast. In fact, Sedolas had already contacted the Federation Government privately, hoping to deepen all-round cooperation between the two sides.

There was nothing else they could do. The times were changing too quickly. One day it had still been Gafura bestriding the world, and now it was the Federation’s turn to start exerting force step by step. On top of that, the Defeated Country alliance was accumulating strength in preparation for a Second World War, and Sedolas was panicking as well.

Many people believed that a Second World War was bound to break out, and that its scale and the countries it would engulf would far exceed the number of belligerents in the First World War.

It might even drag the entire globe into war, and by then there would be no such thing as a neutral or non-neutral stance.

War does not reason with anyone. To replenish all kinds of resources, including human beings, invasion is the most appropriate, the fastest, and the most effective method.

And there is nothing easier than invading small neutral countries that have not banded together.

Out of regard for the fact that they had all been Neutral Countries in the past, Sedolas wanted to cozy up to the Federation, and if it could solve its security problems in the process, so much the better.

As it happened, the creation of the World Development Committee was a perfect opportunity. Once this organization was placed in Sedolas, it would imply a shift in its stance.

Perhaps it could still retain its formal status as a neutral country while at the same time hooking itself onto this solid alliance.

As for whether such a good thing would fall into its lap for nothing?

That was almost impossible. In fact, behind this matter there was much more work, such as the private signing of certain agreements and clauses between the two sides.

Among them was Sedolas’ commitment to provide a deep-water port for the Federation’s warships to be stationed in, while military facilities— including but not limited to an airfield and supply depots—would be built on the land around the port.

The Federation’s concession made Gafura’s Diplomat suspect there was some conspiracy in it, but it was no longer up to him to overthink it. Under a certain degree of pressure, everyone still chose to give their approval.

At the very least, this was better than establishing it on the Federation Mainland, wasn’t it?

Once this was settled, all that remained were matters related to the founding conference. The Federation Government dispatched a working group to Sedolas to handle the preliminary work.

They would first rent or purchase a building as the temporary office of the World Development Committee, and at the same time construct an entirely new building.

Meanwhile, the Peng Jieao Group also announced the establishment of a similar international commercial trade organization, and the atmosphere of bloc confrontation became tense once again.

Only this time, the two sides would not rush into an actual war so quickly; they would first confront each other in the commercial sphere.

Most people saw this as the Federation Government once again highlighting the Federation’s status in the international community and striving upward to occupy a crucial position.

Some authoritative institutions conducted third-quarter opinion polls. In these polls, the current President’s approval rating was as high as sixty-five percent, and it even had the potential to continue rising.

If he really managed to carry out education reform, there would be no problem at all with his re-election.

At the same time, within the Federation’s security apparatus, Scarface, who had been rescued, finally talked.

He had been in a coma for a period of time due to the severity of his wounds and had only recently woken up. The hospital had been very concerned about his health, and only that day did they allow people from the Security Committee to interrogate him.

The Medical Group had a very tough attitude when it came to patients’ health. The Security Committee personnel had requested to interrogate Scarface as soon as he woke up, but the hospital rejected them outright.

The reason given was that the patient’s condition was still unstable, and interrogation could lead to unknown complications, so they refused.

Their attitude toward money was serious, and thus their attitude toward patients was also particularly serious.

If the patient died, where would they get those exorbitant medical fees from?

Once Scarface’s condition had basically reached a "half-recovered" state, the Security Committee was granted permission to interrogate him, but the session could not exceed half an hour.

The interrogation process turned out to be simpler than expected.

When Scarface was pushed into the interrogation room in a wheelchair, he had never intended to resist.

He was not some backbone of a secret organization. He was just a Hunter, a freelance Mercenary whose job was to take money and get things done. He had never had much loyalty to any client.

But he had his own thoughts and demands. He knew that Charlie (the younger sister) had already been rescued.

She had been tortured while she was kidnapped. He could still recall the hatred in Charlie’s eyes, and the words she had said—"You’ll regret this!"

Needless to say, he already regretted it.

"Getting me to talk is easy. As long as you can protect my family, I’ll tell you whatever you want to know."

He was the first of them to wake up and be fit for interrogation, and that gave him a basis to bargain with the Federation.

His demands were actually not that great. He knew he could not escape the sanction of the Federation’s laws. The only thing that weighed on him now was his family.

Everyone is born of parents, and Scarface was no exception. Poverty and other reasons had driven him onto this path.

He knew the terrifying power of money. His only thought now was to keep his family from being implicated.

"I need to ask for instructions...," a Special Agent from the Security Committee said, standing up and going into another room to make a call.

During this process, Scarface coughed from time to time. The upper part of his left lung had been pierced by a ricochet.

He was lucky it hadn’t hit his heart, and with Charlie (the younger sister) willing to spare no expense to save them, he had survived.

But the damage to his lung could not be repaired in the short term, and even after it healed he would still cough from time to time; it would stay with him for the rest of his life.

He was a little nervous. He did not know whether that crazy woman had done anything during his treatment. He could only hope she hadn’t had time.

The Special Agent from the Security Committee soon returned. He sat on the other side of the table and, after a moment of silence, said, "In principle, we agree to your request. But there’s some bad news. I’ve heard that Darkstone Security has accepted a job."

"The job is to find the families of you people. And they’ve already departed..."

Scarface clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles cracked under the force, then he relaxed them again.

He bowed his head. "I beg you to let my youngest brother live. That’s my only condition."

The Special Agent stood up again. "I’ll go ask for instructions. It shouldn’t be a big problem, if you have any other family members."

By this point, everyone already understood the true course of events. The value of continuing to interrogate Scarface no longer lay in forcing him to name the mastermind behind him, but in securing his cooperation.

For a case under such intense international scrutiny, its value did not lie in the case itself, but in the impact it could generate and its value in the political arena.

Sometimes what people need is not the real truth. What they need is merely an "answer" that matches their psychological expectations.

Having the perpetrator of a terrorist attack proclaim an answer is far more likely to win people’s trust than if the Federation Government announced it itself.

The phone was quickly put through to Lynch. He did not think too much about this simple request and agreed at once.

The Special Agent of the Security Committee returned to the interrogation room with the "good news," and Scarface immediately revealed everything he knew.

In addition to this case, the Security Committee was also very interested in some of his past activities—such as the kidnappings, attacks, and assassinations he had carried out all over the world.

Scarface did not understand why the Federation was so interested in things that had happened in the past, but he still cooperated fully and described all the things he had done.

He recounted everything, from minor jobs like breaking a target’s nose, to major cases involving massacres.

If you want to live, and you want your family to live, you have to cooperate. He had understood this very clearly from the moment he first entered this line of work.

Mercenaries—what Faith or stance could they possibly have?

Some might, perhaps, but that person was definitely not Scarface.

It took him three days to fully disclose the large number of things he could remember and was willing to talk about.

After this material was compiled into files and sent back to the Security Committee, some of it was then passed up to an even higher level.

The decision on how to deal with Scarface was also made. He would receive a sentence of more than five hundred years for terrorist attacks and other crimes. Only if, at some point, there was a need for him to appear as a witness would he possibly reemerge in the public eye.

One person mentioned in Scarface’s confession drew the attention of the Security Committee. That person was Mr. Wycliffe, because he had just entered the country not long ago.